


Visiting Hours

by oogenesis



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Fluff and Humor, Jealousy, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-19
Updated: 2017-01-19
Packaged: 2018-09-18 12:28:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9385103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oogenesis/pseuds/oogenesis
Summary: Kaiba, at Atem's insistence, finally brings Yugi along on one of his visits to the afterlife, and promptly regrets it.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I SWEAR I'M GOING TO UPDATE RIVALZONED SOON. In the meantime, have this.
> 
> i was going to edit it before posting but i got. lazy. first-draft quality oops

It's been nothing but Yugi this, Yugi that every time Kaiba comes over, and frankly he's sick of it. He can't even duel Atem without first having to fight through a barrage of "How's my partner doing? What's school been like for him? Has he been eating well? Does he have a lot of friends? Have you said hi to him for me and also to Anzu and Jounouchi and Honda and -" most of which Kaiba is unable to answer because it's not like he sees Yugi or the others every day, or even every week. They'll be strolling through the palace grounds, made hazy and shimmery gold by virtue of it being the afterlife, and having a proper civil conversation for once - and then Kaiba will say something that somehow, apparently, inadvertently reminds Atem of Yugi, at which point Atem's eyes will invariably light up and he'll start in on "That reminds me, did you know my partner -"

Endless.

So he figures, fine, all right, why not. Maybe if he finally brings the boy over Atem will get over him and be able to focus on Kaiba. He'll get his Yugi fix and that'll be the end of it.

The dawning light like a sunrise spreading over Atem's face at the suggestion, and the breathlessness of his "You really mean it?" should have told him it was a bad idea.

.

"This is... weird," says Yugi upon first arriving. He turns around, taking in the palace courtyard held together by Atem's memories, the dreamy way it shifts slightly in and out of focus. "We're really in the afterlife?"

Kaiba nods, scanning the surrounding walkways and columned recesses for the familiar hair -

"PARTNER!"

Yugi's head snaps up at the voice. On a terrace above them, there's the glint of too-much jewelry, a gold-braceleted arm waving wildly -

Yugi takes off running. Atem is running too, scrambling down steps. Their clumsy, joyful impatience, their sheer haste to reach each other, leaves Kaiba in the dust with a sour taste in his mouth. When they collide their arms go around each other and they stumble with the force of the contact, holding each other so tightly it's as though they've become a single person; as though they are trying to share a body once more.

He just has to get through this, Kaiba tells himself. Just this, and then he can have Atem back again.

"It's you," says Atem, laughing in wondrous disbelief, when they pull apart just enough to make eye contact. "It's you -"

"I know," says Yugi, "It's me, I know -"

They are incoherent in their joy; their voices overlap in a babbling stream.

Kaiba has turned away at this point, not wanting to see any more of this than he has to, but when the voices fall silent, curiosity gets the better of him. He turns back around and - oh, well, that's. That's a bit much. That kind of intense passion and focus is usually reserved for dueling rather than just, well, kissing. He pokes at a loose pebble on the courtyard floor with his foot.

"I missed you so much," says Yugi breathlessly, and Atem says, "Me too," and then, oh, look, they're kissing again. Isn't that just perfect. Kaiba is regretting having brought Yugi here more and more with every passing minute, as their mouths move gently against each other, as their hands cradle each other's faces, as they continue being so completely absorbed in each other Kaiba vaguely wonders if they'll swallow each other up.

When they break apart for what Kaiba hopes is the last time, Yugi says, a little hesitantly, "You know, I never got the chance to tell you in Memory World, but -" His eyes run up and down Atem's form, and Kaiba knows Yugi is seeing the same thing he sees - gold flashing on Atem's throat and forehead and waist and wrists, his cape floating behind him like a second shadow, the entirety of his small compact figure breathing royalty like a cloud. Yugi reaches out, touches one shimmering armband, and says, "I can tell you now, you look _beautiful_ like this."

Atem smiles at this - and it's so radiant in the floating joy of the reunion that Kaiba can _see_ Yugi fall a little further in love just looking at him. "I love you, you know," he says, a little dreamy, and Yugi gives a breathless, "I know."

They stand there looking at each other a little while longer as Kaiba simmers and stews in it. Then Atem takes Yugi's hand - threading their fingers together - and says "Come on, I have to show you around. And we have so much to catch up on, how have you been -"

They set off walking, talking animatedly together and quietly resplendent with joy. Kaiba might as well be one of the stone tiles in the floor for all the notice they take of him.

He walks behind them. At first he's only a few meters back; but as things go on and on, as they travel through courtyards and halls and shaded walkways and vaulted corridors, and as they continue to ignore him with an oblivious so deep it can only be unintentional, that distance widens and widens. Eventually he can't even hear what they're talking about, but they clearly have a lot to say; except of course for the parts where they stop to make out. Kaiba has no qualms about calling it that anymore, especially when it gets to the point of pushing each other up against the wall. And whether it's that or holding hands or arms around shoulders or fingers trailing down spine over waist, there is never a moment where one part of them is not touching the other.

Kaiba's mood is getting increasingly worse.

It's getting to the point where, when they wind up sitting on a low stone wall surrounding one of the ornamental ponds, he seriously contemplates striding up to them and pushing one or both of them in. That would be a terrible idea. Certainly he's not adverse to the concept of dampening their infernal lovestruck honeymoon paradise, but it would earn him Atem's wrath - ooh. Atem's wrath. Atem with his eyes dangerously narrowed and flashing, his voice raised the way Kaiba hasn't heard it since their more intense duels long ago. That contained flame-burning force directed at him for the first time in far too long. And of course, he'd be dripping wet.

Now _there's_ a thought.

He's leaning against a pillar in the shadows around the courtyard, watching the two of them practically devour each other's faces on that wall and wrestling with the question of whether he's really that petty, when a miracle happens: Atem, pressing himself up too close against Yugi, somehow manages to overbalance the two of them and wind up pitching them into the pond anyway.

A great splash goes up. Kaiba thanks whatever strange mechanism of afterlife karma is on his side and rushes to the scene in time to see their head and shoulders emerge from the water, hair and clothes dark with water and oh damn it all, they're laughing. He should have known a little thing like getting wet wouldn't put a damper on their mood. His own mood, on the other hand, is rapidly continuing its downward spiral.

"My fault, my fault," says Atem, and Yugi says, "It's fine -" They're both still laughing and the sound grates on Kaiba's nerves. "It is pretty hot out anyway. Can you get out on your own?"

Atem hauls himself out of the pond first, the muscles in his bare arms contracting very nicely with the effort. The glistening wetness of his skin doesn't help. He turns to give Yugi a helping hand, and they both stand and take stock - still, of course, not taking any notice of Kaiba. Yugi's school uniform is dark and dripping and Atem's tunic is clinging to his thighs.

To his thighs, and his waist, and the the little dip where his legs meet his hips. Kaiba can't stop staring. Atem wrings out a corner of his tunic - hiking it up higher on his thighs as he does so, of course, because the universe hates Kaiba and wants him to suffer in the most ways possible - and says, "We should get out of these wet clothes."

The silence hangs thick and hot in the air between them.

"And," says Atem breathlessly, "and into dry ones."

"Of course."

"If you want to, of course."

"Well," says Yugi, and coughs, his eyes very clearly taking in the same things Kaiba has been noticing - "well, that's -"

Kaiba has retreated to a safe distance in case they start tearing each others' clothes off right then and there. It would be just his luck. If that happens, he's going to commit murder, and it won't even be held against him because everyone in the afterlife is already dead -

"Y'know," says Yugi, floundering wildly, "you haven't, uh, shown me your room yet, have you?"

Atem blinks. "My room?"

"Yeah. Your, uh," Yugi licks his lips. "Your bedroom."

"Yes. That."

Their hair drips onto the ground, little round dark marks in the stone. Kaiba is reminded of the torture method involving slow-dripping water; probably because he feels like he's undergoing it. Each second that they stare at each other with the tension and the wanting taffy-thick between them is another year taken off his lifespan.

"Well," says Atem breathlessly, "we'd better get going then, right?"

"Right," says Yugi slowly, then, " _Right,_ " as he takes Atem's hand. "Uh, which way -"

"This way -"

They walk off, hand in hand, the clinging wetness of Atem's tunic giving Kaiba a very clear idea of what Atem would look like from behind completely naked. The dart of warm reflexive pleasure at the thought mingles in with the sourness that, well, Yugi isn't going to need to just imagine that, is he. As they draw further away from Kaiba, Yugi does not actually turn around and grab Atem's ass with a smug grin at Kaiba and possibly a lewd gesture, nor is it admittedly in his character to do so, and there's the fact that he hasn't once looked at Kaiba since Atem entered his field of vision - but it would certainly reflect how Kaiba feels about the entire situation. He's all alone in the courtyard and he's just noticed how hot it is and Atem and Yugi are going up to Atem's no doubt lavishly furnished bedroom to -

Well. If he puts it into words then that makes him picture it, and _that_ brings on a swarm of feelings and sensations he'd rather avoid.

He's starting to get a headache.

This was the worst idea he's _ever_ had.

**Author's Note:**

> As usual, reminder that comments make my day and motivate me to write more. also I edited out a part i accidentally fucked up but yugi is still trans in this fic and in every other fic i write these days


End file.
